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October 6, 2026
The missing seven

Hayes has started six center backs since March, and three are in camp

Spain lost goalkeeper Cata Coll on Tuesday, on top of Aitana Bonmatí, Mariona Caldentey and Vicky López. The United States are without Naomi Girma, Emily Sonnett and Sam Coffey, and the lineups since March show who has filled each place.

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Maya ArguelloOct 6, 20264 min read
Every call on this site goes on a public ledger and gets graded. The misses stay up.
Kennedy Wesley, smiling, in a studio portrait wearing a cream San Diego Wave shirt with a pink and blue patterned collar, against a white background.

The Spanish federation said on Tuesday that Cata Coll had left the squad and would go back to Barcelona. Eunate Astralaga of Athletic Club takes her place. The federation counts 22 matches for Astralaga with Spain's youth teams. Its notice gave no reason for the change. The Spanish news agency EFE reported that Coll had been carrying discomfort in her quadriceps.

Coll started seven of Spain's ten matches under Sonia Bermúdez, by ESPN's lineups, including all six against England, Germany and Sweden. Adriana Nanclares started the two home qualifiers against Iceland and Ukraine. Misa Rodríguez started the away match in Ukraine. Those two and Astralaga are the goalkeepers Spain bring to Washington.

That makes seven players who have started for one of these two teams since last October and will not be at Audi Field on Saturday.

Spain's four#

Vicky López came off Spain's list on October 3, and Juventus forward Alba Redondo replaced her. EFE reported that López had stayed in the gym with physical problems on the eve of Barcelona's match against Real Madrid. Mariona Caldentey came off on October 4. ESPN's match record has her replaced "because of an injury" in first-half stoppage time of Arsenal's 4-2 loss at Manchester City that afternoon, and Liverpool midfielder Natalia Ramos, uncapped, took her place. Aitana Bonmatí was on none of the versions of the 25. U.S. Soccer's match preview says she is still recovering from an injury. The Spanish federation gave no reason for any of the three.

Caldentey started nine of Bermúdez's ten matches and López seven. Bonmatí started three, all of them last autumn, and came off the bench in both June qualifiers. Alexia Putellas started all ten and is coming. So is Patri Guijarro, who started beside her in three of the last four.

The third midfield place was Caldentey's. Clara Serrajordi is the only other midfielder on the list who has started for Bermúdez, twice, both times against Ukraine. Fiamma Benítez has come on four times. Clara Pinedo and Ramos have not played for her.

Up front, two of the three June starters are coming, Salma Paralluelo and Edna Imade. Claudia Pina started six of the ten. EFE reported that she missed Tuesday's training for tests on muscle discomfort; she is still in the squad. Redondo has one appearance under Bermúdez, as a substitute last October.

One more regular was never on the list. Olga Carmona started six of the ten at left back and is not among the 25 in any of the federation's three notices. Mapi León, who started eight at center back, is coming, and so is Irene Paredes, the captain.

The United States' three#

Naomi Girma and Emily Sonnett are injured, which Sunday's piece covered. On Tuesday Hayes said her staff was working with Chelsea to change how Girma's recurring calf injury is managed. "This has happened too often," she said. Sam Coffey came off the roster on Monday after she was hurt playing for Manchester City, and Monday's report has the details.

Coffey's place first. She started three of the last eight United States matches, going back to March 1. Claire Hutton started four and Lily Yohannes five, and in Brazil in June each had one turn as the single defensive midfielder. Hutton has started all 27 of Bay FC's NWSL matches and played 2,412 of the 2,430 minutes. Jaelin Howell, called in for Coffey, has not played for the United States since December.

Center back is where the camp and the pool come apart.

Six players started there in those eight matches. Sonnett started five and Girma four, and both are out. Kennedy Wesley started three, Tierna Davidson two and Tara Rudd one, and all three are in camp. The sixth is Emily Sams, who started beside Sonnett in the 1-0 loss to Japan on April 15. She is not in camp.

The three who are have been playing. Wesley and Rudd have started all 27 of their clubs' NWSL matches and played all 2,430 minutes. Davidson has 22 starts in 26 appearances for Gotham and 1,987 minutes. Hayes has started two of the three together once, Wesley and Rudd against Argentina on March 1, a 2-0 win. Davidson has 70 caps, Rudd 12 and Wesley seven.

Kate Del Fava, the uncapped Utah Royals defender called up on Sunday in Girma's place, has also started all 27 and played all 2,430 minutes.

Sams has started all 27 of Angel City's matches and played 2,403 minutes. She was not on the May 27 roster for Brazil or the September 29 roster for Spain, and she was not the call when Girma came off. U.S. Soccer has not published a reason. Its September 30 story on the roster names four injured players, and she is not one of them.

So of the six center backs Hayes has started since March, two are hurt, three are in camp and one is playing every week for Angel City.

I expect Wesley to start on Saturday. She started more of the eight matches than Davidson or Rudd, and she has not missed a league minute this season.

Spain play at Audi Field in Washington on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern, and at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Sources: Emma Hayes to reporters in Fayetteville, Georgia, October 6, 2026, as reported by ESPN (Jeff Kassouf); Spanish federation squad notices, October 3, 4 and 6, 2026; EFE, October 3 and October 6, 2026, as published by Infobae; U.S. Soccer, "USWNT vs. Spain: Opponent Profile, Recent Form & History," October 6, 2026; U.S. Soccer release on Jaelin Howell's call-up, October 5, 2026, for the current roster and caps; U.S. Soccer release on Kate Del Fava's call-up, October 4, 2026; U.S. Soccer roster releases, May 27 and September 29, 2026; U.S. Soccer, "Emma Hayes on October Roster," September 30, 2026; ESPN lineups for Spain's ten matches from October 24, 2025, to June 9, 2026, and for the United States' eight matches from March 1 to June 9, 2026; ESPN match record for Manchester City against Arsenal, October 4, 2026; ESPN NWSL season statistics for Claire Hutton, Kennedy Wesley, Tara Rudd, Tierna Davidson, Kate Del Fava and Emily Sams.

Filed under USWNT

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Spain beat the United States 2-0 before a sellout crowd of 19,220 at Audi Field on October 10. Patri Guijarro scored in the 3rd minute and Eva Navarro in the 14th. The United States had 13 shots, 10 of them on target, against Spain's six and three, and Adriana Nanclares saved Lily Yohannes's 70th-minute penalty. U.S. Soccer said it was the first start together for the back four of Emily Fox, Tierna Davidson, Kennedy Wesley and Avery Patterson. Gisele Thompson replaced Patterson at halftime. Mallory Swanson and Ashley Sanchez came on in the 66th minute. None of the five uncapped players on the roster played: Trinity Byars, Jordan Silkowitz and Evelyn Shores did not dress, and Pietra Tordin and Kate Del Fava were unused substitutes. The teams meet again at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, on October 13, the last U.S. match before the Concacaf W Championship.

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On the record

Called Shots →
MissedSep 16, 2026

The San Francisco 49ers do NOT add a wide receiver from outside the organisation to either their active roster or their practice squad between 2:49 p.m. Pacific on September 16, 2026 and kickoff of their Week 3 game, 1:05 p.m. Pacific on Sunday, September 27, 2026. Any outside route scores the take WRONG: a free-agent signing, a waiver claim or a trade. Movement among men already under contract to San Francisco does not count, so promoting Wesley Grimes or Will Pauling from the practice squad, activating Christian Kirk from Reserve/Injured, or a standard game-day elevation all leave the take CORRECT. Position is taken from the club's own roster page: a man the club lists at WR is a receiver and a man it lists anywhere else is not.

AGAINST, drafted first and real. Ricky Pearsall has been on injured reserve since August 1 and De'Zhaun Stribling is now out close to ten weeks after ankle surgery, so two of the club's receivers are gone at once and one of them for the season. The group behind Mike Evans, Deebo Samuel Sr. and Demarcus Robinson is Jacob Cowing, who played five of 65 offensive snaps in Melbourne, Jordan Watkins, who was on the Not Active list for that game, and KhaDarel Hodge, who played one offensive snap and was promoted from the practice squad on September 16. Practice squads also churn at the bottom every week of the season, and San Francisco has made a transaction on six separate dates since September 1. FOR. Kyle Shanahan said before Wednesday's practice that he believes the club has as much depth at receiver as any team in the league and does not need to do anything in the interim, which is a head coach answering the exact question this row asks, on the record, on the first day of the window. The practice squad stood at its 17-man maximum when its four tables were counted by name at 2:49 p.m. Pacific on September 16, so an outside receiver cannot be signed without releasing somebody already in the building. The club has also just spent both of its available moves on tight end rather than receiver, promoting Brayden Willis on September 15 and signing Jack Stoll on September 16 off a workout it ran the day before, which is where the room actually went to three. Collision check run against the live 49ers ledger: the open rows ask about a defensive lineman reaching the 53 by September 19, about whether Stribling reaches Reserve/Injured by Week 2 kickoff, about season-long receiving and rushing totals, and about contract-site cap figures. No open row asks whether the club adds a receiver from outside.

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